


The Best Thing

by leli1013



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-05
Updated: 2016-09-07
Packaged: 2018-07-29 14:44:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7688488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leli1013/pseuds/leli1013
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leia is a straight "A" junior with an eye trained on Harvard. Han is a senior who never makes it to first period. You know where this is going.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Ass u me

Neither of them notice the dismissal bell ring.

Halfway through class Mr. Kershner paired them to debate the merits of print media versus digital media, Leia for print and Han against, and didn’t expect their practice debate to blow up into a full blown argument. To his credit, Mr. Kershner _did_ wait a solid fifteen minutes after the bell, convinced his top two students would run out of steam by then; but then those fifteen minutes came and went and he had a  veterinarian appointment to get his dog to, so he left them there with a note on the whiteboard. Not that either of them noticed that either.

“And we come back to the availability issue. Libraries don’t have digital copies of every book in their catalogs, Princess.”

“Aha! That’s the third time you’ve made fun of me –“

“I’m not making fun of you –“

“Mr. Kershner, he has to concede – Wait, where’d he go?”

“Where did everyone go?”

Han and Leia stand stock still at their podiums as they silently take in the empty class room, the sound of fat rain drops falling on the windows suddenly sounding louder than ever. They still don’t notice the note on the whiteboard, but they do finally notice that thirty-three minutes have passed since school let out and that they’re probably the only ones left other than the office staff and the poor souls in detention.

“I can’t believe they left us here,” Leia says, the expression on her face falling somewhere between confusion and wide-eyed disbelief. “There are thirty kids in this class and they all just left us here? And what about Mr. Kershner? What kind of grade could he have given us if he just left?”

Han snorts. “We weren’t being graded.”

“We’re graded on participation and conduct. What kind of conduct grade could we get if we argued through dismissal?”

“Well, considering this is debate class, a great one.” He sees her frown at her phone. “Did you miss your ride home?”

Leia looks up at him, as if startled. “No. Yes. But it’s fine. See you tomorrow!”

She all but runs out of the classroom without so much as a look back or a little wave goodbye to match his own.

Han is pretty sure she hates him. Whenever he throws a smile in her direction she just scowls or rolls her eyes and looks away or walks faster in the opposite direction. He doesn’t know exactly what he did or didn’t do to make Leia Organa hate him, but he has a feeling he didn’t mean to do it (or not do it) and absolutely regrets having done it (or not done it) because Leia Organa is the prettiest, smartest, and most wonderfully infuriating person he has ever met.

Han first saw her at Wedge Antilles’s 16th birthday party at some paintball place called Action City. She’s a tiny little thing and that day she had her hair in two ridiculous buns on the side of her head that Han found adorable. Almost as adorable as the cute little frown she wore as she geared up for battle.

She stopped being cute after she usurped the team captain and started ordering everyone around with a fierceness in her voice that made everyone immediately obey. He was tempted to argue against her commands, but then he watched her shoot down five of their rivals with terrifying accuracy and he just knew he was done for. But, of course, the second he got the nerve to go and talk to her, the very second he took a step in her direction, this blond kid came up to her and she gave him this huge gorgeous smile and kissed him on the cheek because, _of course_ , she already has a boyfriend.

He tried forget about her until he saw her again a week a half later on the first day of school. He was sorting out his locker when she walked right by him. She looked in his direction and he smiled his patented lopsided ‘Charming Han Solo’ smile, and she rolled her eyes and just kept on walking.

It didn’t take him very long to resign himself to pine for her from afar. He’s a senior and, as he eventually learned, she’s a junior who is very attached to that blond kid, a sophomore named Luke Skywalker who he can’t bring himself to hate because he’s genuinely nice and kind of helpless.

He convinces himself that this silly crush will fade away.

A month later he’s still waiting for it to fade away.

He sees no sign of Leia as he gets his umbrella from his locker and walks out of the school and across the parking lot through the heavy rain to his car. He’s about to turn left out of the school parking lot when he sees a familiar five foot figure huddled under the thinly roofed bus stop. He sighs and takes a right.

She rolls her eyes as he rolls down his window.

“I thought you said you had a ride,” he says over the pouring rain.

She rolls her eyes again. “I said I was fine. I’m taking the bus home.”

“Well, you’re gonna be home in about two hours because the next bus doesn’t arrive for another forty-five minutes, and that’s if it’s running on time… which it never does.” He opens the passenger door. “Let me drive you home.”

She eyes his car warily and then looks down the street, biting her bottom lip in deep thought, giving him a sight he would find incredibly sexy if she didn’t look so cold and pathetic.

“C’mon, Leia, I can’t with good conscious leave you out here. You’ll catch a cold and miss school, and then where will your perfect attendance be? Down the sewer drain, that’s where.”

She glares at him, she glares at his car, and then she glares at her feet before huffing in defeat and climbing into his car.

Leia takes a deep, even breath before thanking him in a painfully civil tone and giving him her address.

“It’s no problem,” Han says with a shrug. She barely hides her surprise when he turns the heater on for her. “Doesn’t Luke usually drive you home?”

“Usually.”

“And he didn’t wait for you? Some boyfriend.”

“ _Boyfriend?!_ ”

“He-He’s not your boyfriend?”

She shakes her head heatedly, her face a picture of confusion and horror. “He’s my brother! Oh my God! _Why would you think he’s my boyfriend?!_ ”

“Well, you’re always around each other and hugging each other and kissing him on the cheek and stuff,” he rushes. “And you have different last names, and neither of you ever said anything!”

She gapes at him for a whole block, her mouth opening and closing like the goldfish he had when he was five, and then her eyes grow impossibly wide as a thought bursts into her head.

“D-Do other people think Luke and I are dating?”

He actually has to think about it for a moment. “I don’t think so. Maybe. No?” He winces. “Honestly, I never asked, I just assumed.”

She glares at him again. “Well, you shouldn’t assume things about people!”

He glares back. “Lesson learned!”

They spend the last five minutes of the drive in silence, her looking out the passenger side window, him trying to avoid potholes and internally celebrating her newly revealed status as a single woman.

It stops raining by the time he pulls up to her house and she thanks him again as she gathers her things. He catches sight of a paperback copy of _The History of Mary Prince_.

“That’s an interesting looking Kindle you’ve got there, Princess.”

She gives him a sly grin and he swears he can hear his heart in his ears.

“Actually, I prefer print. I just couldn’t let you win.”

Watching Leia slip through her front door, Han begins to think he might have more than just a little crush on her.

*

The next morning he misses first period, but he sees Leia getting a notebook some twenty lockers down the hall and when she walks by he gives her his usual smile and, this time, she actually doesn’t frown; instead the corners of her mouth lift just a fraction and he practically floats all the way to Economics.

He sees Luke in third period shop class. He’d never spoken to the kid aside from the occasional “Can I borrow a pencil, please?” and “Thank you” and “nice jacket”, but today Han immediately moves to sit on the stool next to his after Mr. Willard takes attendance.

“Thanks for driving my sister home,” Luke says, handing over the pencil he thinks Han is going to ask for. “I tried to wait for her but I had to drive our Uncle Ben to the dentist.”

Han shrugs. “It’s no problem.” He takes the pencil, puts it behind his left ear, and fails to look as nonchalant as he wants to. “Did your sister happen to talk about me afterwards?”

“She said your car doesn’t smell as bad as she thought it would, but it looks like it’s barely being held together by duct tape and sheer will.”

Han makes a mental note to replace the air freshener, or maybe invest in one of those Febreeze things that clip onto the air vents. He briefly wonders what scent Leia would prefer before pushing forward.

“Do you think a girl like her and a guy like me –“

“No.”

Han frowns at Luke and Luke rolls his eyes, suddenly bearing a striking resemblance to his previously “secret” sister.

“Maybe,” Luke concedes. “You’re going to have to convince her, which will be hard because she’s stubborn as hell.” He squints at him for a second. “You’re not going to ask me for her hand or permission or something, are you?”

“God, no; she’d kill us both.”


	2. Somebody to You

Much to Leia’s relief, Han turns out to be right about their grades in debate class. Mr. Kershner gives them the full ten points for their debate along with an extra five “for zeal”. Han gives Leia a cocky grin when they get their results and Leia is too pleased to roll her eyes at him. He takes it as a sign.

After school Leia sticks around to talk to some of the teachers; about what, he can’t possibly fathom, so he decides to use the extra time to clean himself up a little, comb his hair, and steal some of Lando’s less pungent cologne from his locker before heading to Luke’s car to wait for her. He counts the fact that she looks more confused than annoyed as minor, but promising, victory.

Luke takes it as a cue to leave. “Hey, look at that tree over there. That’s a nice tree. And it’s got birds! I’m gonna go check out that tree.”

Leia turns her confused gaze to her brother, then she turns it back to Han who winks back at her.

“Hey Princess, how’s it hangin’?” he says and winces. He doesn’t know where these words came from but he hopes they never come back.

“Why are you trying to do a Steve McQueen impression on my brother’s car?” She sniffs. “And why do you smell like cheddar cheese?”

He makes a mental note to eighty-six the cologne.

“You doing anything Friday night?”

She blinks at him. “I’m washing my hair.”

“Well, how about after you wash your hair, I take you out?”

She furrows her brow. “Out where?”

He shrugs. “I was thinking maybe dinner and movie.”

 “Like on a date? Are you asking me out on a date?”

“No, a field trip. Yes, a date.”

Her face turns into a mixed expression of confused, mild horror, and offended that leaves him feeling slightly amused, kind of hurt, and also a little offended.

“Look, if you don’t want to go out with me, just say ‘no’.”

“No.”

He runs his hand over his face. “Why?”

“What?”

“Why don’t you want to go out with me? I know we had a moment yesterday; and don’t tell me we didn’t have a moment, there was definitely a moment. And I know you like the way I look -”

“I like the way tigers look but you don’t see me climbing into a cage with one.”

He smirks. “So I’m like a tiger, huh?”

She groans.

“Just tell me why you won’t go on a date with me,” he pleads, ready to make a stellar argument.

“Because I don’t want to!”

Okay, he can’t really argue with that. “Give me another reason.”

“That isn’t a good enough reason for you?”

“Of course it is, I just want another one.”

She actually growls this time and a sliver of fear slips down his spine. Han kind of likes it and is a little surprised about that fact.

“I _can’t_ go out with you!”

“What, is there a house rule that says you can’t date people? Is that it? Luke didn’t mention a house rule against dating.”

“You asked my brother for permission to date me?!”

“Jesus, no! I just asked him if he thought I had a chance with you! He said ‘maybe’.”

She huffs. “Well, it’s not a house rule, it’s a personal rule. Han, I’m busy. I have plans, a whole laundry list of things to do to make valedictorian and get into Harvard, and I’ve fallen way behind because I missed too much school last year. I have too much to make up for and I don’t need the unnecessary distraction of dating.”

He thinks for a moment. “Okay.” He nods. “Fine. How about we don’t date. How about we just hang out. As friends.”

“What?”  She clenches her tiny fists. “You just don’t take no for an answer, do you?”

“I do. I did. I just did. I just –“ He runs his hand through his stupidly combed hair. “I like you, Leia. I really like you. I don’t want to, but I do, and I’ve almost made my peace with it. I just want to spend time with you and get to know you better.” Suddenly, he hops, a thought popping into his gorgeous head. “I can carry your books for you! Yeah, I can, like, give you rides whenever your brother ditches you, and I don’t know, do other stuff. I can be your cheerleader, your academic support cheerleader. Hell, I’ll even wear the outfit.”

“Really?”

“No. I don’t know why I said that.”

She giggles, actually giggles, and Han wants to hear her do it again, wants to be the reason she does it again.

“You take study breaks, right?” She nods. “Okay, so we can hang out during your study breaks. I’ll bring you coffee or tea or whatever you it is you drink and, I don’t know, talk. Or, most probably argue. Whatever. What do you say?”

Leia bites her lip and looks at him, really looks at him and his head of soft brown hair that her fingers itch to touch and his roguish smile that makes her stomach flip in a not entirely annoying way. He really does know how to wear a pair of jeans, and that jacket just does things she can’t quite put into words. But when she looks into his suddenly bright eyes she finds that they shine with a clarity she’s never seen before and that, out of everything, is what makes her want to hide.

“You’ll think about it,” Han says abruptly after a long moment. He picks his book bag off the ground and nods mostly to himself. “Just think about it. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He throws Luke a wave and he squeezes her shoulder. She tells herself it doesn’t feel extra warm or tingly long even after he leaves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think the next chapter will be a longer one.


	3. Walk with me, Suzy Lee

Leia almost stumbles when she sees Han Solo waiting for her by the school’s main entrance early the next morning. For one thing, she didn’t totally believe him when he said he wanted to be her friend and “academic cheerleader”; and secondly, she didn’t think he was actually capable of making it to school on time, let alone get there early.

“Aww, he woke up early for you!” Luke coos into her ear and she elbows him hard in the ribs before he staggers over to his friends standing by the bike racks.

There is a split second where she thinks that maybe he actually isn’t there for her, that maybe the counselor gave him a talk and now he has absolutely no choice but to make it to school on time, or maybe he had to do something that forced him to get up early and go to first period today. She finds herself thinking that she would be disappointed if she wasn’t the reason he got up early and not liking these thoughts and feelings at all. But then he notices her, gives her a big smile and an equally big wave, and she feels a wave of irritation wash over her and finds it accompanied by a certain brand of relief that she doesn’t really want to name.

“And here I thought you didn’t know what an alarm clock was,” she says as she walks past him and into the building. He follows.

“Well, good morning to you too, Sunshine,” he manages to say before getting stuck behind a line of cheerleaders and some kid tying his shoes in the middle of the hallway. It takes him longer than it should to reach her and her locker. “You know, you walk really fast for someone with such short little legs.”

She rolls her eyes and says nothing as she starts her morning routine, re-checking her agenda, making sure she as all of the books, notebooks, and assignments needed for the day. He leans against a nearby locker and watches her.

“Why are you staring at me?”

“I’m not staring at you.” He glances over his shoulder, catches sight of a linebacker carrying his boyfriend’s massive book bag, and frowns. “You don’t have any books you might like me to carry, do you?”

“No and I probably never will because I have a system that prevents me from becoming a hunchback.” She scrunches her nose in fake sympathy. “Sorry, Han, but I guess you’re career as an academic cheerleader has been cut tragically short.”

He shrugs. “It’s okay. I was more interested in being your friend, anyway. Oh, I almost forgot!” He reaches into his bag and takes out a clementine. “I read somewhere that they help with your cognitive function and reduce stress.”

She slowly takes it from him, as if he would snatch it back at any moment. “Do I want to know how long this has been sitting on your kitchen counter?”

“Actually, I bought it this morning, fresh off the truck.” He is very proud of this fact and isn’t afraid to show it. “If you don’t want it, you don’t have to take it.”

She holds the fruit closer and plays with the barcode sticker. “No, I want it.”

He looks relieved and she’s surprised to find herself feeling pleased that he feels relieved. It’s annoying.

Still, she lets him walk her to class, all twenty steps down the hall to AP American Lit and he seems kind of happy about it.

“So, do you even know where _your_ first period class is?” she asks him, not able to resist having one last dig at him before going in to take her seat.

“I don’t have a first period class.”

“Wait, what? How? Why?”

“Technically it’s my study period. I have enough credits from my old school that I don’t need to be here the whole day.”

She blinks up at him. “But everyone thinks you’re some lazy deadbeat –“

“But have they ever seen me in detention?” She blinks at him again and he shrugs. “Look, I don’t care what people say because, while everyone else is calling me names, I’m sleeping in an extra hour.”

Han grins at her, smug and somehow charming all at once, and Leia isn’t sure if she can process this new piece of information and fight the sudden urge to kiss that look off his face at the same time. Luckily for her the first bell rings and the entire student population of East Coruscant High rushes to class; that is, except for Han Solo, who watches the stampede go by with unconcerned amusement.

“I think I’m going to hang out in the library for a while; maybe take a nap on one of those bean bag chairs in the back.” He announces, almost to himself. The smugness is gone when he turns back to her, his smile soft and his eyes carrying a weight of affection that she makes her want to go with him. “I’ll see you in third period, Princess.”

Leia watches him walk away and decides that she likes watching him walk.

She also doesn’t know how she manages to pass Mrs. Bray’s pop quiz on _The Faerie Queen_ and is ready to berate Han about it when she sees him in third period physics, but then he winks at her from across the classroom, and something in her chest flutters in a way that she wants to hate, and she decides not to say anything to him at all.

He’s there at lunch, too. Usually he sits in some far corner of the cafeteria scribbling away at whatever homework is due next period, but today Leia walks into the cafeteria and finds him sitting at the table she usually shares with Luke and his friends, passing out oranges.

“Did you buy a whole bag this morning?” Leia asks, taking a seat in between him and her brother.

“Yeah, I did.”

She huffs before tucking into her cheap grilled cheese sandwich, trying to shrug off the funny ache she suddenly starts to feel in the middle of her chest because, if anyone asks (and no one will), she did not think that Han Solo had gone out of his way to buy her a stupid fruit, and she absolutely did not eat it imagining him standing in the produce section of the corner store trying to find the right one for her. It was an orange. A meaningless orange. She doesn’t like oranges that much, she prefers bananas.

Leia doesn’t look at him again until she’s done with her sandwich and starts working on her little bag of Gold Fish crackers. She eyes stupid pretty face, his plain black lunch box, and what looks like a homemade turkey wrap. “Shouldn’t you be doing your homework for next period?”

Han shakes his head. “I finished it this morning. Did you know they took away the bean bag chairs in the library? Apparently, something was living in them.”

Luke scrunches his face. “I’m not surprised.”

“Hey Princess, you want this pudding cup? I ate too many oranges.”

She reluctantly takes it, thanking him while still eyeing the remnants of his lunch, the image of him that exists in her head suddenly not quite adding up to what she sees in front of her. “I didn’t know you brought your lunch from home, Han. Wouldn’t a lunch box taint that ‘Devil may care’ reputation you think you have going on?”

“No, because I still don’t care. Besides, have you seen what they try to feed us here? That barely qualifies as food as far as I’m concerned; at least this way I know exactly what I’m getting.” He eyes her empty cafeteria try. “Don’t you usually bring your own lunch too?”

She shrugs into her pudding.

Hours later Han walks her to Luke’s car after debate class, and for some reason she’s surprised about it.

She’s still surprised when he meets her at the main entrance again the next morning, this time with a can of Starbucks espresso shot that she gulps down at her locker before letting him walk her to first period again. At lunch he gives her another pudding cup and it isn’t until she’s halfway done with it that she realizes that he brought an extra one just for her. He sticks around for Luke’s basketball game after school, cheers her brother on and ruffles his sweaty hair after they win, and Leia appreciates that in a way she didn’t expect to.

In the end it takes Leia about two weeks to realize that they’ve established a routine. Han meets her in the morning with something to snack or drink, he walks her to her locker and first period, he gives her a pudding cup at lunch, and after school he either walks her to Luke’s car or keeps her company while Luke has practice (except for Wednesdays and Thursdays when he goes to work at the salvage yard with his roommate). He flirts with her, and sometimes she can’t help but flirt back just a little because he’s tall and gorgeous, and, really, it should be illegal for someone to be that charming. He calls her names and teases her about her height, she makes fun of his car and questions his intelligence even though, as she comes to learn, he’s actually a hell of a lot smarter than he lets on. He charms his way into her daily life, makes himself into a sounding board she occasionally wants to punch, into someone she doesn’t mind seeing every day; and she finds it all very irritating because it’s exactly what he wants. 

*

Sometime in mid-November the AP science classes pile onto a bus and head to the Natural History museum for a field trip and Han assigns himself as her ‘buddy’ for the excursion the second he sits next to her on the bus. She rolls her eyes at him but doesn’t argue; she’s learning how to pick her battles with him.

A month ago Leia would have expected him to make sarcastic quips the whole day and then try to escape halfway through the tour; instead, he’s quiet and attentive. She can almost see him making notes in his head and soaking in all of the facts presented to them.

But then they get to the Hall of Human Origins, and he nudges her side, points to a replica of the three foot tall _homo floresiensis_ , and whispers into her ear, “That’s you.” She lightly slaps his arm and fails to bite back a smile he desperately wants to see again.

When they take their seats for the planetarium presentation, she half expects him to try to hog the armrest in a thinly veiled attempt to take her hand, or maybe even do the old ‘yawn-and-stretch’; but he doesn’t and, really, she should know better by now. No, Han keeps his hands comfortably folded over his lower abdomen and pays her no mind while Bill Nye goes on and on about dark matter and the Big Bang; and it’s while Bill talks about static and eggs that Leia is struck by how much she wants Han to reach for her. She blames it on the chilly weather outside, the dark auditorium, the stars projected on the ceiling, and the fact that, sometime between the Hall of North American Mammals and the ‘Secret Aliens Inside You’ exhibit, she discovered that he smells like Old Spice, coffee, and motor oil and that she actually really likes that weird combination on him.  Either way, she lets a cracked corner of the wall she has built around herself finally fall away, and rests her head on his shoulder.

He buys her astronaut ice cream in the gift shop.

She buys him lunch.

She picks the pepperoni off of her pizza and he picks them off of her plate.

Han watches her dab the excess grease off the pizza and smirks in appreciation when she folds it in half and takes a rather impressive bite. “Why don’t you like pepperoni? I thought everyone liked pepperoni.”

Leia shakes her head and swallows. “I don’t eat pork.” She takes a gulp of her water. “Did you know that some pigs can be as smart as a toddler?”

“Huh, you don’t say.” He pops another pepperoni into his mouth and she stares at him. “Wilber’s already dead, sweetheart; there’s no point in letting him go to waste.”

“You’ll eat just about anything, won’t you?”

“Food is food. You’d be surprised at what you’re willing to eat when you’re starving.” He says with a shrug and an ease that startles her.

A million and one questions zip through her mind and she files each and every one away. She won’t ask now, not here. If he’s willing to wait and work for her confidence, then she will do the same in return. She knows he wouldn’t want her pity because she sure as hell doesn’t want his.

Instead, Leia tells Han that he has garlic breath and that he should try not to breathe on anyone.

She also lets him put his arm around her shoulders on the bus ride back to school and that has absolutely nothing to do with pity.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know why this was so hard to write.


End file.
